Eiffel Tower CEO to quit after female staff replaced for Hindu group visit

The chief executive of the company operating the Eiffel Tower will step down at the end of the year following a backlash over female staff being replaced by male colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group. Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has headed the landmark’s operator SETE since 2018, will leave his post after an internal investigation found “operational flaws and shortcomings” in organising the visit, the company said. About 100 people linked to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) visited the Eiffel Tower earlier this month. SETE said the group had requested arrangements limiting interactions with women, leading to female employees being removed from some positions and areas, according to a BBC report. The company later said such conditions “should not have been accepted”. A staff union representative said female workers had been asked to leave their workplaces and described the treatment as humiliating. The incident prompted a staff strike that closed the Eiffel Tower and drew criticism from French politicians. National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet said women should not be forced to step aside to meet the demands of foreign visitors, while Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire called the decision “absurd, unjust and unacceptable”. SETE Chairman Ariel Weil said measures and training programmes promoting gender equality would be introduced as part of the company’s response. BAPS apologised earlier this month for any “pain or inconvenience caused”, saying it believed in “universal values of mutual respect and service”. The Hindu organisation maintains that separating men and women is intended to benefit women, while critics have described the practice as discriminatory.

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